Now it is Janet Lim Napoles’ turn to challenge the government and the Senate’s turn to call for the state audit agency to conduct an audit of the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) of lawmakers in the past six years. Lorna Kapunan, counsel of Napoles, the businesswoman at the center of the alleged P10-billion pork barrel scam, yesterday dared the government to freeze the accounts of all lawmakers and non government organizations (NGOs) that have been implicated in the alleged misuse of pork barrel funds. “I dare her to freeze all accounts and assets of all those mentioned in the report: lawmakers, NGOs and government officials,” Kapunan was quoted saying by GMA News Online, in an interciew. The accounts Kapunan wants frozen by the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) and Justice chief Leila de Lima are the bank accounts of the legislators and the NGOs that appeated in the Commission on Audit (CoA) report. It was earlier stated by CoA chairman Pulido-Tan that that from 2007 to 2009, dozens of dubious NGOs, including 10 allegedly linked to Napoles, had received millions in pork barrel funds from legislators. Several legislators from the Liberal Party and other congressional allies of President Aquino, had been found, in the same CoA report, to have Former and incumbent congressmen currently aligned with President Aquino are among the 74 lawmakers who received excess “pork barrel” allocations from 2007 to 2009, a CoA special audit showed with some allies who having received discretionary funds beyond their P70-million annual pork barrel allocations. Incumbent House majority leader Neptali Gonzales II and Iloilo Rep. Niel Tupas Jr. as well as now Customs chief Ruffino Biazon and now Tesda director general Joel Villanueva appeared in the CoA report, among others. But Senate President Franklin Drilon and former Budget chief Rolando Andaya Jr. quickly claimed that there was nothing illegal in a congressman getting more than his allocated PDAF, more commonly known as pork barrel. The CoA report also pointed to Tupas and Villanueva as among the 35 lawmakers whose PDAF was used by to procure P541 million worth of supplies from an establishment called C.C. Barredo Publishing House, which was said to have issued “questionable” receipts. On the matter of the freeze order, De Lima said this order covered some 400 financial accounts of Napoles, her family and NGOs. But Napoles’ lawyer said in the same interview that none of the NGOs mentioned in the CoA report could be linked to her client. She added that what she got from the CoA report and the companies that were named, even the purported and alleged companies (of Mrs. Napoles), “are not hers at all,” Kapunan stressed. Kapunan also said the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), which is investigating the pork barrel anomaly, was the only venue where her client can disapprove the accusations against her but that Napoles has not as yet been invited by the NBI. At the same time, calls for the revocation of the Senate’s stand to keep a “hands-off policy”, for the meantime, in investigating the P10-billion pork barrel scam has snowballed in the upper chamber, with two senators in aid of legislation, on the findings of the CoA on its special audit on lawmakers’ PDAF in the past six years. Neophyte Sen. Grace Poe-Llamanzares joined hands with Senators Francis “Chiz” Escudero and Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel in having the upper chamber dip its fingers on the matter of alleged PDAF misuse as perpetrated by some unknown quarters. Poe is set to file today a resolution urging the conduct of a probe on the participation of NGOs in questionable government transactions identified by the CoA in its report. Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto is likewise planning to file a resolution asking the committee on finance, which is chaired by Escudero, to hold formal hearings on the same report. “This is needed while hearing the 2014 budget proposal,” he said. “I am in favor of investigating, more so now there is a CoA report. The CoA report must be explained to the Senate. Some clarifications are also needed,” Recto underscored. With the growing number of those now favoring a parallel Senate investigation, Sen. Juan Edgardo Angara agreed that the status quo position they have taken shortly after convening the 16th Congress, can no longer continue. There appears to be a lack of safeguards for public money such as in the case of PDAF, in which the proposition aired by Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago for a gradual phase-out of pork barrel is doable, Angara said. “For the House of Representatives that has constant demands from the people, there could probably be a very limited menu that is corruption-proof, so this would be for scholarships, hospitals and emergency assistance, limited funds devoted to certain essential infrastructure like classrooms, libraries, daycare and health centers all coursed through government agencies,” he added. Blue ribbon committee chairman Sen. Teofisto “TG” Guingona, some two weeks ago, announced the decision reached by senators during a caucus not to hold a parallel probe on the issue until after all the ongoing investigations by the NBI, Department of Justice and Office of the Ombudsman have been completed. They deemed it improper to carry out the investigation since the controversy implicates some of their colleagues. But regardless of the position they have taken, Escudero who was first to file a resolution for a probe on the issue, is bent on pursuing the matter even without any separate formal committee hearings. “I intend to do that,” Escudero said in responding to Recto’s call and in pertaining to planned moves to inquire on the controversy during his committee on finance’ hearings on the 2014 proposed national budget. “Especially since I cannot really limit the questions that a senator may ask but it will be limited by (1) we cannot invite third parties i.e. Napoles, Luy etc., (2) it will be time bound given that we have to approve the budget of all agencies within the year. In addition to the committee on finance, I hope Recto will also reconsider pursuing the resolution I filed for the blue ribbon to look into this,” he said. Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, also a member of the administration bloc in the Senate, agreed to the need for the upper chamber to step into the picture. “I believe that in the light of the immense public pressure, the Senate cannot look away from this pork barrel scandal anymore. We have to face it squarely if we are to survive as an institution,” he said. Yet, Trillanes expressed belief that regardless of any legislative remedy on pork barrel, “only President Aquino can abolish the PDAF by simply excluding it from the national expenditure program (NEP).” “I will support him if he will do so,” he said. Opposition Senators Gregorio Honasan and Nancy Binay have their respective take on the issue. “These are all premature considering that the NBI, DoJ and Ombudsman have not come up with their investigation report. The CoA report is also incomplete. I am willing to support abolition of the PDAF called for after thorough and impartial investigation,” Honasan said. Honasan, former chairman of the committee on public information, feels that the Freedom of Information (FoI) should not be passed into law as it would prove to be crucial in determining the truth on matters such as disbursement of PDAF allocations. In her resolution, Poe emphasized, “The corruption has become humongous that the amounts are no longer just in the millions but in the tens of billions of pesos and has become complex that NGOs and peoples’ organizations are utilized to masquerade illegal activities.” COA bared that the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) funneled P6.156 billion in the form of Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) to questionable NGOs from 2007 to 2009. Its report stated: (1) Billions of pesos in pork barrel funds were anomalously disbursed and misused from 2007 to 2009; (2) most of the NGOs utilized were managed or owned by the same persons; and (3) the list of beneficiaries were falsified, manufactured, and names were unfairly used and simply taken from the list of board and bar passers.
Posted on: Wed, 21 Aug 2013 08:16:35 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015